Kishanganga Dam row: Did Pak unknowingly hand India a win?

Kishanganga Dam row: Did Pak unknowingly hand India a win?

The man who represented Pakistan at the International Court of Arbitration to explain the country's case on the Kishanganga Dam is believed to have played into India's hands and wrongly projected Islamabad's loss as its gain.

According to the Nation, the Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Water, Kamal Majeedullah has reportedly facilitated India to get the decision on controversial tunnel to divert water from Wullar Barrage to Kishanganga Dam in its favour from the Hague-based court.

The newspaper, in its report, has also said that the ICA in its interim order had not barred India from continuing work on the tunnel, the main demand made by Pakistan, but the Special Assistant was dubbing the court decision as endorsement of Pakistan's point of view.

As per the law, if 80 per cent work on some project is completed, the opponent party can't get it reversed from the ICA.

Kishanganga Dam row: Did Pak unknowingly hand India a win?

The newspaper further says that work on the controversial 22 km tunnel from Kishanganga to Wullar Barrage Dam was in progress since 2008, but when Pakistan intended to take the matter to the ICA in January, India convinced Pakistan for an out-of-court settlement.

"However, after dragging Pakistan in a futile dialogue, just aimed at gaining more time and completing maximum work on the project, it declared that talks had failed," the newspaper said in an article.

"The Pakistani officials dealing with the matter, before entering into dialogue, did not even bother to get some assurances from India to stop work on the project, which was almost 50 per cent complete by then," it added.

The newspaper further claims that Pakistan has committed criminal negligence by granting India time to almost complete the project -- and thus providing the court with a justification to endorse what, factually speaking, is violation of the Indus Water Treaty.